Texas Investor Eyes Space Station as Orbiting Pharma Lab

MOFFETT FIELD, California – A swaggering Texas investor with a famous name wants Big Pharma to pick up the tab for the International Space Station when NASA eases off.

Thomas Pickens III thinks the pharmaceutical industry and the space station need each other.

Drug discovery is an arduous and extremely expensive project. But in space, molecules do miraculous things. Disease-causing proteins crystallize so well – growing larger and clearer – that finding a drug to stop the protein's damaging activities could happen months, if not years, faster.

Scientists have known for decades that some science works better in space – but it hasn't been easy to get experiments up there. Now, with NASA planning to reduce its $2.6 billion annual investment beginning in 2015, the agency is throwing the space station open for private enterprise. And the Texas financial scion and multimillionaire is ready to transform space science with an injection of capitalism.

"If people knew what I already know, the International Space Station would be considered one of the most valuable resources our world possesses," Pickens said at the ISS National Laboratory Workshop last week. "There are things you can only do in microgravity that will eventually lead to products that could save millions of lives."

Pickens is chairman of the board of Spacehab, a company that provides equipment and services for scientists who want to send experiments into space. He has an obvious vested interest in getting scientists, and the entities that fund them.. But all the bias in the world doesn't matter, if there are experiments worth doing in space.

Scientists have sent all kinds of things into space with unique results. One 2000 experiment found that 1,600 kidney-cell genes were expressed differently in space than on the ground. Another found colon-cancer cells showed unique metabolic changes in microgravity. But with so many possible avenues of discovery, it has been difficult for scientists to make much progress, given how limited time in space has been.

Still, one area of research has had results that can lead scientists down a clear path of drug discovery: protein crystals.

"Up in space, the crystals grow bigger and better," said Tim Osslund, who specializes in protein formulation at Amgen. "The end result is higher resolution." And that resolution is a very valuable thing.

Osslund sent some of the company's proteins to the Mir space station in 1998. His crystals grew 32 times larger in space than in an earth-grown control environment. Larger, better crystals allow scientists to see a protein at the atomic level. That kind of detail can significantly accelerate drug discovery.

Pickens, who also manages a $100 million nanotechnology fund, believes that getting paid to grow these proteins in space will be the killer app for keeping the $130 billion International Space Station alive. Increased traffic to the ISS could drive down the cost of space flight and open up the station to all kinds of commercial applications, which would come in handy as NASA's financial support wanes.

Pickens' father made a fortune in oil, became a corporate raider, and now runs a hedge fund. He's worth $2.5 billion. No wonder his son looked to the heavens to make his fortune. Spacehab recruited the younger Pickens earlier this year to turn the company around. The 20-year-old penny stock firm has a market cap of about $5 million.

You'd never imagine his company's modest finances watching Pickens interact with scientists at the ISS workshop. Pickens is a tall, charismatic Texan. He talks as if every period is a walk-off homerun.

The scientists seemed wary of him, which is perhaps appropriate. After all, he is prone to saying, "I am Wall Street." But they are transfixed when he talks about bringing big money into outer space. They're listening, because Pickens and other businessmen are the new variables in the space equation. The science has been there; the salesmanship has been missing.

Given the opportunity, biotech and pharmaceutical companies would likely be eager to buy crystals like the ones Osslund grew. Here's why: Treating disease often boils down to two proteins. One is generating the disease and the other blocks the first protein from working. If you know the shape of the disease protein – let's say it's a wine bottle shape – it's much easier to stick a cork into its mouth. The higher the resolution of your picture, the faster you can find the cork. And with some proteins, without the highest resolution, it's simply too difficult to find a cork.

Without a protein structure, scientists resort to blasting the protein with millions of molecules, hoping that one of them will stick. Pharmaceutical companies call the process screening, and it takes a long time and it costs a lot of money, even though there have been many improvements in the process. A new drug costs $800 million to get to market and takes 10 years to develop. But the payoff is huge. A report found the top-selling blockbuster drug Lipitor raked in $12.2 billion for Pfizer in 2006.

Space-grown crystals won't just speed drug discovery: They could also help companies find more precise drugs that cause fewer side effects.

"Conceptually, better crystals grown in space could improve our hit rates," said Dr. Kam Zhang, director of structural biology at Plexxikon, a biotech firm that's solved over 3,000 protein structures and created novel drugs. Two are in clinical trials, including one potential cancer treatment (.pdf).

But one thing is sure: The space station needs private money, and lots of it. As Allan Marty, a former NASA consultant, told a mostly agency crowd at the ISS workshop last week, "It's not a given that the Space Station will be sustainable, unless we find a way to attract private capital over the next eight years."

Sitting with Pickens in what used to be an officer's lounge, the conversation ranges from space to energy and his theory that fusion will eventually replace oil (he used to build power plants).

Big pharma supporting space? Fusion? You can take Pickens out of Texas, but you can't take the Texas out of Pickens. It's easy to be skeptical when it comes to ideas that are science-fiction big. But what if he can transform a sleepy company into a bleeding-edge biotech and space-logistics hybrid?

"One day, I think you’ll see the space station completely occupied by commercial entrepreneurs," said Dr. Larry Delucas, a former astronaut and director of the Center for Macromolecular Crystallography at University of Alabama-Birmingham who sits on the scientific advisory board of Spacehab.

Pickens could make millions, save lives and commercialize space. That would make dad proud.